Friday, January 7, 2011

Eco Fascist

Eco Fascist, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi remains in office temporarily. Tuesday, he survived a confidence vote without a verb with a narrow majority. In the House of Deputies voted 314 for and 311 against Berlusconi. In the Senate, the result was as had been expected: 162 senators support the Prime Minister and 135 against.

In May 2008, Berlusconi was elected prime minister for the fourth time since 1994. His coalition government, consisting of his party, People of Freedom (PDL), and the xenophobic Northern League, had the majority in both houses of parliament.

However, the impact of the global economic crisis is rapidly undermining the Berlusconi government. After Greece, the public debt in Italy is the second highest in the European Union. Youth unemployment is 25 percent, and 8 million of the 60 million Italians live on less than 800 € per month.

Faced with this crisis, the government has been largely paralyzed and fell off a scandal to another. Allegations of corruption and involvement in the empire of Silvio Berlusconi’s media mafia, who had kept his old government in limbo, were followed by scandals involving S-EX- with minors 74 years and Berlusconi, who has dominated the headlines for weeks. The pile of garbage in Naples, which, in the election Berlusconi promised to eliminate, accumulate still higher.

In the ranks of his supporters Berlusconi was increasingly losing support. Representatives of leading companies have turned their backs on him. The president of the Industrialists’ Association, “Emma Marcegaglia, attacked publicly. His predecessor, Luca di Montezemolo, Ferrari CEO, said:” After 15 years of waiting, its time to end this one- man show. ”

Ultimately, Parliament Speaker Gianfranco Fini led the opposition. In 2009, the former fascist Alleanza Nazionale had merged its (AN) with Berlusconi’s party. Now he saw his chances of becoming bland successor to Berlusconi, and decided to rebel. In the summer of 2010, he and 36 of its members broke with the ruling party, founded his own band called “The future and freedom for Italy” (FLI), depriving Berlusconi of his majority in the House representatives.

After some hesitation, FLI Fini also filed a motion of censure. What followed was a dirty fight that is unprecedented in Italy. The Berlusconi camp allegedly bribed two members with € 500 000, has promised another order for a company and its fourth seat in the future government. Others were threatened with the prospect of losing their seats, with the promise kept to a safe position on a future slate.

One day before the confidence vote, Berlusconi threatened that his dismissal would plunge the country into the heart of the crisis of European debt. Given the persistent speculation in financial markets, it would be “political folly, not obvious and credible reasons to provoke a crisis,” he said. At the same time, he offered the opposition Christian Democrats (UDC) positions in a future government.

Several followers of Fini Berlusconi seemed receptive to the demands and threats. Six members of FLI 36 said it was unreasonable to risk a government crisis and that they would vote for Berlusconi’s “deep concern for the country.” Nevertheless, the confidence vote was extremely close, and the session was interrupted when fighting erupted between members.

The portion of the vote of confidence will not solve the political crisis in Italy. Given its limited and precarious majority, the government is barely able to act. Before the vote, Berlusconi’s coalition partner Umberto Bossi of the Northern League had been pressing for early elections. “You can not govern with a majority of one, the only solution is new elections,” he said.

The decline of democratic institutions in Italy in a swirl of corruption cases, corruption and S-EX- has reached a level that triggers only horror and disgust of many voters.

Intellectuals and cultural figures have repeatedly in the streets to express their outrage with Berlusconi. Last Saturday, tens of thousands responded to the call by the Democratic Party (PD) and demonstrated in Rome against the policy of the head of government. “This event will be the beginning of a historic change that will bring an end to Berlusconi,” PD chief Pierluigi Bersani said. People at the event are “Italy tomorrow,” he said.

In desperation by the fact that Berlusconi apparently survives any case and many setbacks, repeatedly returning to power in the past 16 years, many intellectuals to blame the mass of the population.

In reality, the responsibility for the persistence of Berlusconi to power is the so-called opposition, led by Democrats, who emerged from the Communist Party 1991.Whenever they were involved in government from 1996 to 2001 and again 2006 to 2008 – they have imposed massive cuts in social programs and attacks against people who work, paving the way for Berlusconi to power.

The “opposition” parties are supported and defended by a plethora of middle class, gathered in the party Rifondazione Comunista. Rifondazione argues that Democrats are the lesser evil, and in 2006, even joined the government of Romano Prodi bourgeois politician breaking with their own political necks. In two years the Prodi government was so disappointed his voters that Mr. Berlusconi was able to return to power in triumph.

The Democrats do not attack Berlusconi for his policies in the interests of rich and powerful. Instead, they fear that the government is not constrained by austerity measures with the same vigor as the PD social democratic friends in Greece, Spain and Portugal. The so-called “left” has moved so far from the mass of the population that is afraid of new elections and prefers to form a “government of technocrats.”

While the xenophobic Northern League pushes for new elections, Berlusconi’s hopes of reelection, the Democrats are hiding behind the fascist Fini, leaving the political initiative for him. “We are obliged to follow the will of the former neo-fascist experience a bit strange,” said Enrico Letta, a prominent Democrat and close associate of former Prime Minister Prodi on Saturday to protest in Rome.

In Italy, the main problem for workers across Europe and the world can be seen most clearly among the established parties, there is not one that expresses and represents the interests of the working class. The reformist parties and programs that promise social improvements, while leaving intact the capitalist system, are all bankrupt. Only an international offensive by the working class on the basis of a socialist program can stop the political and social reaction, so vividly represented in the person of Berlusconi.